First Look: Lucky’s Market in Clintonville

Lucky’s Market will officially open their doors at 2770 North High Street to the public this Wednesday, October 23rd. Tonight, they hosted a community preview event where future shoppers could browse the aisles, sample prepared foods, and preview the large fresh food selection that the Boulder-based chain prides itself upon. (The Columbus store is only the third store, and first outside Colorado.)

“Columbus was chosen because it is a great town with great people,” shared Lucky’s President Bo Sharon in an interview with CU in July. “Clintonville is a growing neighborhood and we feel that our concept of affordable, natural foods will be successful among the like-minded community.”

Take a peek of the new store for yourself by browsing the photos below.

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Walker is the co-founder of ColumbusUnderground.com and TheMetropreneur.com along with his wife and business partner Anne Evans. Walker has turned local media from a hobby into a full time career over the past decade and serves on multiple boards and committees throughout the community.

In the picture of the “Natural Soda”, I hope they change that to “Natural Pop”! :-)

Ned23

Looks great. Looking forward to checking it out. Old North Cbus needs this. I still say Campus Partners really missed an opportunity by not trying to get another grocery or Trader Joe’s in where the Sunflower Foods was.

John McCollum

Weiland’s needs to up its game. Their recent “Grand Re-Opening” was lackluster at best — some new flooring and a couple of new signs.

Lucky’s has a far more coherent retail concept than Weiland’s. Its prices are better. Produce and bakery are better by a far stretch. Weiland’s still wins in beer, wine and cheese. But they need to get serious. This is their first real challenge, and I haven’t seen a commitment to significant, storewide improvement. Ever.

Lucky’s is a great store. It’s like the downtown Hills market, but with better selection and better prices.

I’m at Weiland’s literally 5 times a week, as it’s 45 seconds from my house by car. I’ll still buy my booze and cheese there, but walking into Lucky’s makes me realize just how far Weiland’s needs to come to stay relevant.

Graybeak

I am not sure how I feel about the o h i o silhouettes above the beer section.

Ned23

@John, Weiland’s just doesn’t have the square footage to spread out like that. That produce section alone would force a couple of the existing aisles out of their current store. Weiland’s has good service and good meats, deli and cheeses and wines, and their prepared food is pretty good too. Like you we’re closer to them and they’ll probably stay as our main store for a lot of things.

John McCollum

@Ned23, Hills Downtown is even smaller than Weiland’s, but it’s organized, branded and curated much better. Weiland’s could be an excellent privately-owned, neighborhood grocery store if it only had the will — and probably some investment capital. It’s good, but it’s missing its potential to be great.

Ned23

@John, you’re right Hills downtown is a little smaller. But it seems like we only buy half as much stuff when we go to Hills. I do like their sushi, however.

DouginCMH

Weiland’s is a favorite of mine, but I’ll admit that I go there a lot more since they added the liquor department. I’d rate the renovation a bit higher than does John, but I agree it was mostly superficial. What’s odd are how good certain sections of the store are (cheese, for instance), while other sections lag far behind. I’ve always been frustrated at the quality of their baked goods; I mean, lots of individually plastic-wrapped, dense baguettes just aren’t going to cut it. Their bread section is just screaming out for an upgrade. Hills is an interesting comparison. I’ve not been to the downtown location – which I hear good things about – but the original one is in far worse shape than Weiland’s, in my opinion. I’m very exited to see Lucky’s coming to C-ville. Hopefully, Weiland’s will up its game. I don’t see any reason why the community can’t support both places. I certainly will. The Kroger on High and N Broadway, on the other hand…

Eugene_C

Weiland’s ain’t as pretty as some of these other chic markets, but it’s bright nad I can see stuff in there. This subdued woody bit is nice and earthy, and may have feng shui or whatever, but you can’t see whether it’s clean and you can’t see the food half the time. Fresh Market over on Henderson and Earth Fare are both offenders in this regard. Light I say! Let there be light! :P

Eugene: Based on my experience stopping by Lucky’s on my way into work today, I don’t think you’ll have any complaints about the lighting. It’s very open and bright. Actually, a very spartan layout. Attractive, but durable. A very good first impression.

amazinga37

I enjoyed my visit last night. I stopped in for a few things and also to be nosey :) But I found the layout great, the employees very helpful, and a lot of great new products to try! I’m not a loyal to anyone, I shop around and I think a lot of people do. I think there is room for everyone! Oh, and I stopped by the salad bar and brought home their ham and pea soup…fabulous, to the point where I licked the bowl ;)

John McCollum

Not that anyone here has their undies in a bunch, but I wanted to clarify from my earlier comments: I love Weiland’s. I will continue to shop there. I just think that they need to up their game if they’re going to continue to succeed in this newly competitive marketplace.

ranchdude

Look out Giant Eagle, your prices and service chase people away. Now the Kroger @ N Broadway (that I’ve shopped at for 19 years uggh), I used to like a lot. Then they “improved” it. Well they expanded the store annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd there’s less in it. Something simple like Birthday Cake Candles is a tough find…but they have LIVE LOBSTERS! What I goto Kroger for always!

Ned23

Don’t be too hard on the ‘big bird’. G. Eagle pays union wages with benefits to most of its employees, IIRC. That whole ‘free gas points’ is a little silly though.

Ned23

Finally did check out Lucky’s this weekend. The first thing I noticed was that you can’t get a cup of coffee there, but there’s a Tim Ho’s right next door, so I wandered over there while my wife perused the store.

For us, this store saves us several trips around town for weird brands of stuff that we usually have to go to 3 different places to buy. Raisin Rack, Whole Foods, Tensuke, and Earth Fare will probably see fewer visits from us. Turns out the Lucky’s has great sushi. It’s good sushi with fresh fish and veggies as opposed to the “gunked up with fatty western sauces over 8 different imitation crab rolls with deep fried ingredients sushi” that’s turning up everywhere.

We still went to Weiland’s for a few things, like Pastrami and wine and Stauf’s coffee, but except for some of the produce, most of what Lucy’s has is stuff we get from stores other than Weilands already, so if anything I think the two stores compliment each other.

Lucky’s has lots of processed / branded “health food” in brightly colored boxes, and vitamins and soaps and that kind of stuff. Not the kind of stuff you go to Weiland’s for. Weiland’s has stauf’s coffee, good fresh mozerella, and a much bigger deli. Lucky’s has much more produce, the weird rice wraps we buy, Quorn brand meat substitute, etc.

As far as grab and eat food, they had pizza slices. Raisin Rack still wins for the best in-store prepared fast food with their deli. And Lucky’s needs to offer a cup of coffee for sale. Even Marc’s will give you a cup of coffee (even if it’s not very good coffee). I guess we’re pretty spoiled around here.

Last comment: Columbus Underground has to do a taste test between Lucky’s rotisserie chicken and Weiland’s. Game on!

Stopped by Luckys over the weekend to do the usual grocery shopping. I have never been so blown away and impressed by a grocery store. I honestly didn’t think something like this could exist. They have giant eagle/whole foods quality produce, Trader Joes ecentric food selections, a farmer’s market like local selection, but at super affordable Meijer/Kroger prices. Wow!

Eugene_C

Visited the store, and was pretty impressed. It does produce very well, and most other things better than average. I liked that they had local products.

I would like to know if anyone can tell me what the working conditions are like there? Do they pay more than minimum wage? If so, how much? That can be a deciding factor for me in how much I spend there.

Ned23

Attention, I haved an udate from my earlier post:

Lucky’s market has cups of coffee! I don’t know whether I missed them the first week or not, but I found them the second week, back behind the deli in a corner by the doors leading into the back prep area. Since my wife always drags me there way too early on Sat., this is great news for me :)

Walker is the co-founder of ColumbusUnderground.com and TheMetropreneur.com along with his wife and business partner Anne Evans. Walker has turned local media from a hobby into a full time career over the past decade and serves on multiple boards and committees throughout the community.